Looking back over the past four or five years, diesel trucks and diesel performance have become a more important part of my life by the day. As I sit here in my office typing away, working on a story for a diesel performance magazine, I sit and wonder who is to blame for my addiction to diesel trucks? To whom do I point the finger for making big horsepower, smoke-blowing diesel pickups such a terrible money-grubbing hobby for me?
Today my life pretty much revolves around the diesel industry; not only do I enjoy diesel motorsports as a hobby, I also depend on diesel motorsports for a living. I'm now getting paid to stay as in tune with the industry as possible. I spend hours in front of a computer screen learning about the newest products in the diesel world. Somehow I got lucky enough to find a way to make my favorite past time into a career. I don't know how it happened, but I'm glad it did. So back to the question at hand, who is to blame?
Do I blame my lifelong friend and college roommate who let me drive his Ford Powerstroke for the first time way back in high school? After all, he was the one who let me get behind the wheel of a torquey 7.3L he was driving. Is that where my addiction started?
How about the day my dad came home with a Superchips tuner for his one ton Ford? That was the first time I'd really ever been around a `chipped' truck. I remember thinking how insane that truck was with that 80 hp tune plugged into it. So do I blame my dad for getting me hooked on the power a diesel could make?
There is also my buddy who had that straight piped 24V Cummins. That thing sounded like an animal at full throttle, just the grunt and turbo whine from that truck was enough to drive me crazy. It got to the point with me that the louder the truck the better. Nothing says diesel performance like the screaming whistle of a turbo. Maybe it's his fault I'm the way I am today.
Maybe I should blame the guys in the diesel industry who have helped me build my truck to what it is today? I guess when you really look at it, if it wasn't for them, maybe I wouldn't be so addicted to horsepower. I'd never know any different if it weren't for their knowledge and diesel products. "Oh, just order the chip, it'll be enough, I promise," one of them told me. Well, a full-built motor, a huge turbo and a set of stage V injectors later, here I am, still looking for the next big performance mod.
Maybe I should blame all those guys in the Duramax and Cummins trucks that outran me on those backcountry roads on Friday nights when the cops weren't looking. I guess when it comes down to it, I've got more than one person to blame.
So this column is to you guys; it's all your fault I am the way I am. thanks.